The United States accounts for the largest domestic letter traffic in the world, handling almost 200 billion pieces of mail each year. Many companies and private concerns use the mailing system to provide advertising information to customers or potential customers, and solicit information and responses from customers or potential customers. A few examples of the way the mail system is utilized includes, for example, advertising catalogues, sales brochures, and the like, subscription or potential business solicitations, information request responses, proxy statement responses, remittance documents (invoices for payment due) and the like.
Due to the volume of mail that gets delivered each day, it is not uncommon for a recipient to receive several pieces of mail each day. The recipient, therefore, is forced to sift through the numerous pieces of mail received each day to separate those mail items that might require some time sensitive action on the part of the recipient from those that do not. Such items that might require a time sensitive action on the part of the recipient can include, for example, invoices or notices of payment due, reminder notices, and the like. Many, if not all, of the items that require some action on the part of the recipient require the recipient to take such action within a predetermined amount of time. For example, credit card companies and utility companies send invoices to their customers by mail and the customers (recipients) are required to provide payment within some predetermined amount of time. Frequently, if the recipient fails to take the necessary action, such as, for example, providing payment by the due date, there can be substantial penalties and financial charges levied by the sender. It is, therefore, extremely beneficial to the recipient to be able to easily distinguish those mail items that require some action on the part of the recipient from those that do not, as well as to easily determine a date by which the action must be taken. With the large amount of mail received each day, however, it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the different mail items without having to open and read each item, and it is impossible to determine the date by which the action must be taken without opening and reading those mail pieces that do require some action. Furthermore, if the recipient does not sort the received mail each day, a large amount of mail can accumulate with the recipient, and those items that require some action can easily be misplaced or forgotten about, thereby causing the recipient to miss the action due date and suffer the penalties associated therewith.
Thus, there exists a need for a system and method that enables mail recipients to easily identify mail items that require some action on their part, as well as easily ascertain the date by which the action must be taken.